The visitor from the future tries to settle in to his new surroundings!

Tim Stevens

Published

Jun 12, 2014

Updated

Jun 12, 2014

Share:

Comments:

Miguel O’Hara presents as an adult male in excellent physical shape. Although largely “typical” in physical appearance, the client has some small but noticeable physical differences including sharper and longer than typical canine teeth, which medical exams reveal are largely hollow and capable of releasing venom. To conceal these teeth, O’Hara has adopted a different manner of speaking. At times, this muffles his voice and gives of the impression that he is mumbling. His eyes are unusually pigmented with red lined irises; with this pigmentation seems to come an increased sensitivity to light. Finally, the client has retractable talons on his fingers and spinnerets on his forearms. Although he is largely able to keep these “adaptations” controlled and hidden, he will occasionally accidentally reveal them. Anger is the most often noted trigger to these “accidents.”

O’Hara self-identifies as a human being from the future, the year 2099 to be specific. He claims that his physical abnormalities are the result of gene splicing, an expensive and cutting edge technology of his native timeline. Although he acquired them by accident, the client made the choice to utilize them to help people seek justice and resist the corrupt rule of 2099’s megacorporation culture. As such he was the Spider-Man of that time period. While this writer has been unable to verify the client’s status as a man propelled backwards in time, I am currently treating the statement as accurate. However, it is the opinion of this writer that it remains important to seek some sort of corroborating evidence on his claims.

The client has also disclosed that, in his native timeline, he was forced to ingest a party drug known as Rapture which bonds to your genetic code rendering you, in essence, an instant addict. O’Hara was not content to let this stand, so he instead attempted to “reset” his code, leading to the above noted physical changes. Although he did not go fully as planned, he was able to purge his Rapture addiction.

Thus, while he has, technically, substance dependency in remission, this era’s DSM criteria does not really have a category to account for either a drug like Rapture or genetic modification as a cure for addiction. He also seems to have no psychological dependency, which is an additional anomaly in comparison to the DSM criteria.

O’Hara is predominantly attending therapy for help making the transition to the 2010’s and his feelings of loneliness having been separated from his support system of family and friends. Additionally, at times, the client attempts to utilize this writer as a means of understanding “now,” asking questions about what’s popular, current events, and the like so as to better fit in. How much to indulge this is an ongoing question for this writer as it does seem to benefit O’Hara but is also not typically what one would describe as “therapy.” On the other hand, there are no other obvious services to refer O’Hara to in order to address this sort of thing.

Miguel O’Hara is set to meet with Doctors Peter David and Will Sliney on July 9. Session notes will be available in file SPIDER-MAN 2099 #1.

Psy D. Candidate Tim Stevens, MA is a Dialectical Behavior Therapy Consultant and Psychology intern at a small(ish) university in New York City.